


Drippin'

by babychenle



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: 2k of pure fluff, M/M, chenle is all in his uwus, i mean so am i, ice cream parlours are cute first dates ok, lil bit of angst, nothing major, slight jaemin / renjun if you squint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-05
Updated: 2018-09-05
Packaged: 2019-07-07 12:11:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15908016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/babychenle/pseuds/babychenle
Summary: A running commentary of how Chenle and Jeno meet and slowly fall in love.





	Drippin'

**Author's Note:**

> This is something I finished a long time ago, but due to certain reasons I decided to let it rest for a while. However I'm back and ready to post this, I hope you enjoy ~
> 
> Italic writing - characters speaking in Mandarin

Chenle still remembers the first time he’d stepped foot outside Incheon Airport, the foreign tongues wrapping around his brain and constricting. He only had enough Korean knowledge to thank the driver when he arrived outside SM and to ask for directions to his new home. Luckily, he’d been roomed with another Chinese rookie, Renjun, who offered to help him with his Korean when he saw the wide-eyed stare Chenle had sent the other rookies when they introduced themselves. Chenle had sighed in relief and introduced himself, everyone cooing at his stilted Korean.

It’s now been 6 months since he moved, yet he wasn’t making as much progress in learning Korean as he would like. He mostly speaks to Renjun as he doesn’t have to worry about being judged or worry about making mistakes. Unfortunately, this meant he wasn’t as close to the other rookies as he would like. Including a certain older rookie called Jeno. Ever since Chenle had first seen him, eye smile and all, he’d instantly developed a crush. It was one of the reasons he was so disappointed in his lack of Korean still. He wanted to be able to speak to Jeno and get closer to him. Yet every time he tried, as soon as he saw Jeno’s smile his breath caught in his throat and he bailed.

Jeno had always thought Chenle was cute. From the first time he saw him, struggling to introduce himself, he wanted to help him. However, Jeno knew absolutely no Mandarin and turned to Renjun for help. Poor Renjun, oblivious to the mutual crushes of his two friends, agreed to help.

After 2 months, Jeno felt he was confident enough to try and initiate a conversation with Chenle. He spotted the younger in the kitchen and confidently walked up to him, conversation all prepared in his head.

_“Hi Chenle.”_

Chenle jumped, not used to hearing Mandarin from anyone but Renjun, and occasionally Sicheng whenever he saw the elder.

_“Ah, hi! How are you?”_

_“Uhhh, I’m very good? What about you?”_

The conversation continued for a few minutes, just basic things until Jeno decided to venture further.

_“So, Chenle. I wonder was if you spend time me with?”_

Chenle could see Jeno’s brow furrowing, focusing intensely on the sentence. The mistakes were easily made, but the cute facial expression made Chenle giggle, looking towards the floor. He missed the way Jeno’s face dropped and the furious blush working its way from his cheeks to his neck. Before Chenle had time to answer, Jeno stormed off back to his shared room with Jaemin, roughly closing the door. Confusion spread across Chenle’s features, what was that about?

//

It’s been a month since their conversation and Chenle still hasn’t managed to speak to Jeno about what happened. Every time he tries to catch him, Jeno manages to sneak away from him. Chenle turns to their mutual friend Renjun to try and find out what happened.

_“Renjun ge, do you know why Jeno’s been avoiding me? Is he ok?”_

_“Um, I don’t know sorry. He hasn’t been showing up for our Mandarin lessons so I haven’t been able to catch up with him. It’s strange, he’s normally so eager to learn. I’m sure it’s nothing though.”_

Renjun offered Chenle a small smile before carrying on with his homework. Jeno had been going to Renjun for Mandarin lessons? Since when?

How had Jeno managed to avoid him this long when they lived in the same dorm, did the boy even leave his room? Chenle was finally able to corner Jeno after enlisting the help of Sicheng and he thinks the other guys called Yuta, he doesn’t know many of the older rookies. They asked Jeno to come to their dorm for a bit to do with some rookie business and when he walked in and saw Chenle sat on Sicheng’s bed he instantly turned around and tried to run away.

“Jeno… please.”

As soon as he heard the youngers pleading voice he sighed and turned around, ready to accept his fate.

“Jeno hyung… why are you avoiding me?”

“I’m not. I’ve been… really busy.”

Chenle pouted. “You found time to hang out with Jaemin hyung though…”

Jeno’s eyes widen at the pout. How can one boy be so cute?

“Well. Jaemin doesn’t make fun of me.”

“When did I ever make fun of you?”

“When I tried to speak to you in Mandarin and I messed up. You were laughing at me.”

Chenle’s eyes widen and he begins to shake his head violently whilst waving his hands.

“No, no! I wasn’t laughing at you! Well, I kinda was but… I thought you looked cute when you were concentrating, that’s why I laughed! I know how hard it is to learn a language, I mean I’m surprised I haven’t messed this up yet!”

Both Jeno and Chenle’s faces were flushed and they avoided eye contact.

“So, if you thought I was cute when speaking Mandarin…” Jeno takes a deep breath, _“I like you.”_

Chenle giggles lightly, the flush of his cheeks deepening and spreading to his ears. Jeno thought he looked beautiful.  
_“I like you too.”_

Both of them just stare at each other for a while, not noticing the boy stood behind the door who had finally put two and two together and just sighed before walking off.

“So, should we go on a date?”

Chenle smiles brightly and nods lightly before they fall into a comfortable silence.

2 days after the confession, Jeno and Chenle decide to go to an ice cream parlour for their first date. Taeyong drives them since he’s their self-proclaimed mum and wants to make sure they get there alright, not trusting the other boys. Once they arrived outside Patty’s ice cream parlour, Jeno and Chenle quickly hopped out the car and turned to wave at Taeyong. Rolling the window down, Taeyong shouts out a quick farewell before driving down the road.

Entering the parlour, the first thing Chenle notices is the cute decorations dotted around. His eyes widen at the small ice cream themed statues spread across the countertop next to the freezer filled with freshly handmade ice cream.

“Hey Chenle, go grab us that booth in the corner and I’ll get us some ice cream”.

With a flash of his infamous eye smile, Jeno glided towards the counter. Chenle shuffled into one side of the booth and clasped his hands together on top of the table. Looking over towards Jeno, Chenle’s mind drifts imagining all the future dates he wants to have with the boy in front of him. He hadn’t noticed that Jeno had paid and was now carrying over the two ice creams until a soft voice called out to him from the seat across from him in the booth.

“Here’s your ice cream Chenle ~”

Chenle looks down to find Jeno holding a mint chocolate chip cone to himself and handing a strawberry swirl cone to Chenle. His favourite.

“Ooh, strawberry swirl! My favourite!”

“Ah, I may have asked Renjun what your favourite flavour was before we came here so I could impress you…”

Blushing, Chenle lifts the ice cream to his lips to hide his smile and begins to eat his ice cream. Tasting the sweet strawberry tang on his tongue, he looks up into Jeno’s eyes and smiles brightly.

“Thank you, Jeno.”

Once they had both finished their ice creams, they decided to go for a stroll around the park across the road from the parlour. Chenle took Jeno’s hand and guided him towards the pond in the centre of the park to watch the ducks swimming across the surface. Jeno smiled down at the interlaced fingers, not minding the slight clamminess coming from both of them. It was nice to know Chenle was as nervous as him. Looking back up at the boy next to him, admiring the ducklings that had swum closer to the two boys, Jeno sighs quietly and slightly swings their hands.

After the ducklings had lost interest in the two boys and paddled away, Jeno led Chenle to a bench just beside them and the two sat in silence, staring out at the park in front of them. Jeno casts a glance at Chenle from the side of his eye and notices a smudge of pink at the corner of his lip. Before his mind could catch up with his body, he slowly leaned in and pressed a small peck against the smudge, subsequently wiping it away. As he pulls back, he licks his lips and notices how Chenle’s face has suddenly gone as pink as the ice cream he had just kissed away. Feeling the heat against his cheeks, he realises his face is the same too. Chenle turns to face Jeno and grins widely at the boy before leaning in and copying Jeno’s actions, the kiss feather light against his lips. Jeno felt his breath stutter and his heart swell because of the sweet boy sat beside him.

“Be my boyfriend… please.”  
Chenle’s cheeks grow even brighter and he starts to giggle whilst leaning his head on Jeno’s shoulder.

“Of course, you dummy.”

Through the metal fence of the park, Taeyong is sat in his car smiling lovingly behind the wheel at the two boys in front of him. He rests his head on the steering wheel, beginning to think about how to talk to the two boys about their relationship when he accidentally presses too hard and suddenly his car horn beeps loudly, alerting the two boys on the bench to the fact they’re not alone. They look behind them and see Taeyong’s shocked face ducking quickly behind the steering wheel. Laughing, Chenle drags Jeno off the bench and the two begin to run towards the other side of the park.

Turning the corner of the small café in the park, the two boys slow down, panting slightly. Jeno wraps his arms around Chenle and they both smile at each other gently as Chenle nudges closer. They decided to rest there for a bit and sit down on the floor, Chenle still in Jeno’s arms. An old lady and her husband walk past them hand in hand and smile sweetly at the couple.

“Ah, I remember when we were young and in love.”

Both boys’ cheeks lit up and Chenle turns to look at Jeno to find him already staring down at him. Chenle’s heart is pounding in his ears as he leans up and softly kisses Jeno properly. Pulling away, he buries his face into Jeno’s chest to hide his flared cheeks and he can hear Jeno’s heart beating loudly. Chenle decides it’s his favourite song. Jeno runs his hand through Chenle’s hair and presses a soft kiss to the top of Chenle’s head, smiling brightly at the boy cuddled into him.

Shortly after they hear a small sniffle and pull away to see Renjun peeking around the corner at them. They share a look of confusion before turning back to the boy who is quietly murmuring in a mix of Mandarin. Jeno tries to pick out what he’s saying but the only word he understands is _“die”_. He looks alarmingly at Chenle and mouths the word, eyebrows raising slightly. Chenle giggles back at him.

“He says he wants to die because we’re such an adorable couple.”

Jeno breathes a sigh of relief and begins to pat Renjun’s head, trying to calm the boy down. Chenle joins him and begins talking soothingly in Mandarin. Jeno has no idea what he’s saying, but he sounds so beautiful Jeno couldn’t care less. Renjun slowly calms down and begins to talk to the both of them, switching between Mandarin and Korean.

“You’re both _so precious and_ cute and good and –“

He whines loudly and grabs the boys into a large group hug.

After a few minutes, Jaemin appears around the corner and pulls away a still emotional Renjun with the promise of milkshakes and fries. Chenle watches the two fondly before remembering him and Jeno are supposed to be on a date. Pulling Jeno back to the pond, he reaches into his backpack and pulls out some duck feed pellets he’d bought from the pet store the other day. Jeno chuckles lovingly before reaching into the bag and grabbing a handful of pellets. The ducklings from before were back and the two boys kneeled down and spread the pellets in front of them, admiring the little birds pecking away in front of them. One thought passes through both their minds and they look at each other, almost as if they know they’re both thinking the same thing.

**“I wouldn’t want to be here with anyone else.”**


End file.
